$100 in 1938 is worth $430 in 1977,
because prices increased 329.8% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$430
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
329.8%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$430
Price difference ($100 base)
$330
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1938 → 1977
$430
$100 in 1977 → 1938
$23.27
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1977
Between 1938 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 329.8%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1977: the 1938 dollar
lost 76.7% of its purchasing power over
these 39 years.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1938 amount converts to 1977 at the same ratio, 4.30: $1,000 becomes
$4,298, and $10,000 becomes $42,979.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1977
$1.00
$4.30
$5.00
$21.49
$10.00
$42.98
$20.00
$85.96
$50.00
$215
$100
$430
$500
$2,149
$1,000
$4,298
$5,000
$21,489
$10,000
$42,979
$100,000
$429,787
$1,000,000
$4,297,872
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1977
Between 1938 and 1977, medical care rose the most, up 453.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 258.9%, against 329.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$430
Medical care
4.48%
$553
Food
4.43%
$541
Transportation
3.65%
$404
Apparel
3.33%
$359
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1938: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1938 to 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1977 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1938, at end
1938–1940
-0.36%
-0.7%
$99.29
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$171
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$210
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$275
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$430
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $205 by
1958, on its way to $430 in 1977; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 1.4% in 1939, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $430; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1977: $100 is worth $430 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1977/